TV Pendidikan (), also abbreviated as TVP (known as DidikTV KPM under Media Prima Berhad) is a Malaysian educational television network owned, produced and operated by the Educational Technology and Resources Division, Ministry of Education. The network airs educational programming for various school subjects. The network's affiliates has been changed several times, beginning with RTM (1972–1999), Astro (2000–2006), and TV9 (2007–2008), prior to 2020 relaunch.
In October 2018, the then-Education Minister Maszlee Malik announced that TV Pendidikan would be relaunched after years of long absence. The move persisted even with the change in Malaysian administration as the Ministry plans to take over most of the ntv7's timeslot under a rebrand as DidikTV KPM on 17 February 2021.
History
Before TV Pendidikan
An educational television pilot project, which would later become TV Pendidikan, started on 8 June 1965 and lasted for two weeks. The theme of the pilot project was "The Air Around Us", aimed at Science students and was presented in Malay and later repeated in English.
As TV Pendidikan (1972–2008) TV Pendidikan was officially launched on 19 June 1972 by the Second Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdul Razak. It was later expanded to Sabah and Sarawak on 30 August 1976 and began colour broadcasts in 1979. In April 1998, the then-Information Minister, the late Mohamed Rahmat announced the privatization of the network. However, the plan for privatize the network did not materialized as TV Pendidikan is still owned by the Government.
From 3 January 2007 until 31 December 2008, TV Pendidikan was aired on Malaysia's terrestrial channel, TV9. Previously, TV Pendidikan was aired through satellite pay-TV operator Astro's Channel 28 (2000–2001) and Channel 13 (2002–2006), and Malaysia's terrestrial television channels TV1 and TV2 from 1972 to 1999 respectively.
In October 2018, the-then Education Minister, Maszlee Malik announced the relaunch of TV Pendidikan while stating that the Ministry of Education developing its own content.
TV Pendidikan was relaunched on 6 April 2020 after 12 years of absence and began airing on OKEY, one of RTM’s channels. The network made its comeback on RTM after two decades since its last broadcasting in 1999. As of 4 May 2020, The network also made its comeback on Astro since its last broadcasting in 2006 via Astro Tutor TV.
After nearly 13 years of the network's presence on TV9 since it last aired in 2008, TV Pendidikan was also made its debut through ntv7 under the name DidikTV@ntv7 on 23 November 2020.
As DidikTV KPM (2021–present) TV Pendidikan has made a comeback on Media Prima, a decade since it last aired on TV9 in 2008. Its new home, ntv7, broadcasts a program slot known as DidikTV@ntv7 and in conjunction with the Movement Control Order (MCO) that has been set by Malaysian government on 18 March 2020. The Ministry discussions were underway with Media Prima on plans to continue the slot in 2021.
On 12 February 2021, Ministry of Education announced that ntv7 will be refocused as an educational TV channel known as DidikTV KPM for one year starting 17 February 2021. The channel features educational content based on SPM curriculum and co-curriculum. It would also provide news focusing on education, edutainment shows, and content produced by the students, as well as relevant international programming. The channel will have 17 hours of airtime and will run daily from 7am to 12am.
Operations
Unlike any major television networks in Malaysia, which operated during daytime hours daily; TV Pendidikan does not operated daily, even on weekends and public holidays, but rather only broadcast on Mondays to Thursdays during school times. TV Pendidikan also airs program schedule whereas the network's programs would be aired for the day and for the next day as well as programs that will be aired on the following week. The network also doesn't air advertisements during its original programming break times and they only aired after the end of programs, with most of the ads aired were primarily from government agencies like Ministry of Health, Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, and Filem Negara Malaysia. Clips of TV Pendidikan programs also aired sometimes, which was placed between two program slots.